fantasies on one occasion, Hwen Thsang prayed to Kwanin (a Buddhist divinity), but could not get rid of them; though as soon as he had pronounced a few words from the Prajna (a holy book) they vanished in the twinkling of an eye.

And it is undoubtedly true that strange sounds are often produced by the shifting of the sands, especially in the night, after a hot day, when the sand cools and the wind blows. It would be easy for a superstitious person to believe that these sounds were the voices of unseen creatures in the air. Sometimes the sounds are like those of a bell, or of a drum; and scientific writers have described the places where they have been heard in various parts of the world.

In the story of "The Boy Emigrants," published in 1876, the author tells of a lad who hears, in the midst of the Great American Desert, as it was once called, the nine-o'clock bell ringing in his New England home, far away. This really happened, and the author of the book actually thought he heard the bell ring. So, too, the same party of boy emigrants saw what they thought were trees, water, and lovely hills, floating just above the edge of the desert. That was a mirage; and people have seen on the sea-coast a strange apparition of towers, palaces, and lofty pinnacles, most beautiful to behold. This is a natural phenomenon, and is called the

VII.]

fata Morgana.

THE SALAMANDER.

77

So much for this "marvellous "

story, which no doubt has been called

Marco Polo's lies."

one of

In what he says about the fabulous salamander we find some more truth; but he uses it to put to ridicule an ancient fable. Here is his account:

Chingintalas is also a province at the verge of the Desert, and lying between north-west and north. It is an extent of sixteen days' journey, and belongs to the Great Kaan, and contains numerous towns and villages. There are three different races of people in it-Idolaters, Saracens, and some Nestorian Christians. At the northern extremity of this province there is a mountain in which are excellent veins of steel and ondanique. And you must know that in the same mountain there is a vein of the substance from which Salamander is made. For the real truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of the world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell you about it.

Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal's nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is composed of all the four elements. Now I, Marco Polo, had a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he was a very clever fellow. And this Turk related how he had lived three years in that region on behalf of the Great Kaan, in order to procure those Salamanders for him. He said that the way they got them was by digging in that mountain till they found a certain vein. The substance of this vein was then taken and crushed, and when so treated it divides as it were into fibres of wool, which they set forth to dry. When dry, these fibres were pounded in a great copper mortar, and then washed, so as to remove

all the earth, and to leave only the fibres like fibres of wool. These were then spun, and made into napkins. When first made, these napkins are not very white, but by putting them into the fire for a while they come out as white as snow. And so again whenever they become dirty they are bleached by being put in the fire.

Now this, and naught else, is the truth about the Salamander, and the people of the country all say the same. Any other account of the matter is fabulous nonAnd I may add that they have at Rome a napkin of this stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope.

sense.

Modern geographers are uncertain as to the precise location of the province of Chingintalas; but probably it lies somewhere east of Kamul, in Chinese Tatary. The story of the salamander, an animal which could pass unharmed through the fire, is one of the oldest in the world. The ancient Greeks thought it true; and in the Middle Ages it was believed that the salamander's body was covered with a soft white wool which could be made into threads, and spun and woven into cloth. But the general belief was that the creature was like a lizard in shape; and it was said that if anybody kept a fire burning for one whole year and one day, without it ever once going out, a salamander would appear and play about in the live coals.

So far as we know, Marco Polo was the first to dispose of this fable, and tell the truth about the salamander. The stuff called by the Tatars "sala

mander's wool" was merely asbestos, a mineral substance with a considerable fibre, which can be spun out and woven. It is indestructible by fire; and the crude mass may be cleaned and made into sheets for various purposes, such as wrapping steam-pipes and water-pipes, as is done in our own country. The salamander is heard of no more. The "ondanique," of which our traveller speaks more than once, is a very superior kind of iron ore from which the Orientals made their famous steel sword-blades, which were of so exceeding fine temper that a blade could be doubled into a hoop without breaking.

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW JENGHIZ KHAN DEFEATED PRESTER JOHN-THE MYTHICAL CHRISTIAN KING AND THE MONGOL CONQUEROR-DIVINERS

AND THEIR TRICKS-TATAR MIGRATIONS.

OW we come to a fabulous personage whose

Now

existence was generally believed in by Europeans for hundreds of years and up to the time of Columbus. This was Presbyter John, a Christian prince, who was supposed to reign over a rich and powerful kingdom somewhere in Central Asia "east of Armenia and Persia," which is a pretty vague way of putting the case. Sometimes he was said to reign on the eastern coast of Africa; and his name was shortened from Presbyter to Prester. Several European potentates sent letters to Prester John, and tried to find him and his kingdom. But the mysterious Sovereign was never found. What Marco Polo says about Prester John, therefore, must be taken with many degrees of allowance for the superstitions of the time. What he says about Jenghiz Khan, however, is worthy of respect and belief; and this account of the origin of the Mongol